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Friday, June 16, 2017

Agency Instrumental to Shale Boom Slated for Budget Slash by President Trump

From Bloomberg:

An agency instrumental to America’s surge in energy production would lose half its funding in President Donald Trump’s proposed federal budget.

The Energy Department’s Office of Fossil Energy, whose research helped push the U.S. closer to self-sufficiency, is slated for a 58 percent cut for next year, to $280 million. The shale innovations the office develops are available to any company that can use them, including industry giants that keep results of their own studies, but they’re most beneficial to independent drillers that might otherwise find it tough to compete with behemoths such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and its $1.06 billion annual research-and-development budget.

“What the federal government, at times, has done very well is they help get experiments run that many companies may not be able to afford on their own, or wouldn’t have the moxie to pull off,” said Greg Leveille, chief technology officer for ConocoPhillips, one of the country’s biggest producers.

Many in Congress, even Republicans who favor cutting programs, have balked at the cuts. Senate appropriators defended the Energy Department’s research program, citing the agency’s work on shale gas development.